ZMF New Headphones: Vérité and Aeolus

I agree with the above. It’s also worth noting (considering the, uhhh, “discussion” of customer service in a recent “How to Win Friends...” thread) that Zach’s customer service is great, as is his warranty. People have obviously had some service issues with Focal and other companies that charge similar prices (and I say that as someone who bought and enjoys the Clear). That’s not going to happen with Zach, who’s always accessible and responsive.

I’m not sure that I can pull the trigger on a $2k headphone, but I’m *very* intrigued by them. My Atticus is my absolute favorite pair of headphones (even more than the Auteur I also bought from Zach), and I just placed an order for a pair of Classic MK3s last week.

TLDR, Zach’s headphones are great, and insofar as you’re dropping serious money on headphones, ZMF is a safe company with which to make that investment.

 

Definitely agree with ZMF customer service being excellent. Among the best in my experience. Zach goes above and beyond to make sure his customers are satisfied.

While it's unlikely that I will be buying either new model or making big audio purchases in general I am still very excited to see how these turn out.

 

I remember the times (not so long ago) when anything above 1000USD was considered offensively overpriced in headphone-land. Now people are voluntarily defending manufacturers raising their price tags to multi-thousand dollar ranges. Sad times.

(Sucks to be me if I dont like it, I know. Will probably just go and buy some HD650s and Verum 1s to support appropriately priced headphones... Still looking forward to Ether 2s though since those are actually bringing something new to the market due to their extraordinary comfort and lightweight nature along with reportedly high-end SQ.)

 

I'm inclined to agree with @Magnetostatic_Tubephile, but I'm also a vain and fancy bastard who at a time spent more money on fountain pens than he did on computers and audio gear, haha.

Good value gear will always have a place in the hobby, but that shouldn't exempt manufacturers from making beautiful things and pushing the boundaries of what headphones are capable of. To each their own, the community votes with its collective purse. I understand that there's a contingent of people who aren't the biggest fans of ZMF on account of the premium the hand-crafted work costs and opinions of their sonic performance; the former is obviously a matter of taste, but so is the latter— if everyone here agreed what constitutes good sound then most manufacturers would be out of business and we'd all be Brand X shills.

 

I admit that this is a bit biased, but I am more open to paying a bit more for something that has a handcrafted quality from a small company. They tend to feel a bit more special to me. I know you criticized the aesthetics in another post, but ZMF makes some of my favorite looking headphones. Many of the wood choices look stunning. In addition to that the 2 ZMF models I've used sound great, and Zach offers top notch customer service.

 

I'm sure they will be wonderful but they don't sound like anything I particularly need ... hopefully that will keep my unhealthy obsession with wood headphones in check :S

P. S. Zach why do you hate my wallet man.

P.P.S. What I mean is being closed is a big part of the appeal of the Atticus to me, and the coloration of the Auteur likewise

 

Haha I wanted to name is Aelius because I like the name - but Aelius is not the God of wind and thunder and all that, Aeolus is. But you can totally picture whatever kind of nipple you want when listening to them.

As far as price, yes they are expensive, and honestly where our business is at its much easier to make slowly built, super high quality headphones. I could have chosen aluminum for the chassis and not gone with Be on the driver, but I didn't want to make that headphone yet and were not set up to churn out 100's of headphones a month yet for lower priced products. The magnesium chassis and Be costs 3 to 4 times as much as the other materials we have used and that's not counting the up front cost to have a molt of Be done for the drivers and going through two years of R/D on these things. The truth is these definitely aren't for everyone, they are heirloom type headphones made one at a time by a few guys in our shop. We are actively shopping for a new space to allow production capability for a less expensive product with less premium materials, but to be honest I really love the process of meticulously obsessing over a small number of headphones a week, it just feels satisfying when you finish a batch of headphones that took a good amount of time to build.

I guess one thing to also realize is that each headphone is more or less me deciding what I'd like to own, and pursuing that until it's done. I will do my best to inject some larger scale manufacturing into my hobbyist ways soon, but it's hard to do!

 

@zach915m you keep doing you man. Bulk-manufactured stuff is everywhere, "artisans" are a dime a dozen nowadays, but ones that know their business and have honed their craft to the extend you have are pretty f'ing rare.

I'm not complaining about the price even though I'll have to keep saving up for a long time just to buy new, lol.

 

I feel like ZMF can certainly use buzz words like Craftmanship and have them be backed up. Craftmanship to me implies quality and care to the little details.

Just don't go for the artisan, locally hand crafted, organically grown headphone, ethically raised with love and hugs.

 

@zach915m Not sure if it's been posted elsewhere, but roughly much of a weight reduction will the magnesium hardware bring? You probably recall how picky my head is with comfort.

 

@zach915m

Speaking of this, Zach, what's your take on Be(coated) over Bio-cellulose as transducer material? As an extension, I am also wondering how Verite differentiates itself from your existing products (say, Auteur) - Is it different taste, or a clear step-up?

Quite curious how metallic coloration (my longtime prejudice on metal transducers recently confirmed by Utopia again) gets along with ZMF house sound!

 

Probably a silly question to interject into this conversation, but why all the rage against ‘overpriced’ headphones when the amps and dacs people use to drive these things cost two or three times as much? Heck some people spend as much as a Verite on cables for crying out loud!

You could argue the whole industry is overpriced - and it probably is - but it’s a niche industry in a free market, and you just need to get yourself to RMAF to see the queues of people just begging head-fi vendors to take their money.

PS. Telling a well-heeled headphone enthusiast he’s crazy for spending $2.5k on a flagship headphone when he can get a perfectly decent plastic Sennheiser is like telling a supercar enthusiast he’s crazy for spending $250,000 on a Ferrari when he can get a perfectly decent mass produced Ford.

And for the record, I think the performance and prestige of a Verite compared to an HD6x0 will be about the same order of magnitude between the Ferrari and the Ford. Just because I can’t afford a Ferrari or a Verite doesn’t change my opinion either.

 

@Magnetostatic_Tubephile

The inflation of prices is nothing we haven't seen from speakerland. It's even crazier in the 2-channel world.

I'm probably not allowed to say anything too specific, but some of our [speaker] brands here, which are highly esteemed within the audiophile community, have crazy high levels of dealer margin built into the list price (and additional margins for the distributors as well). And people are buying them new and calling them "great value" in terms of price vs performance. It's safe to say that, in the 2-channel market, a strong majority of a product's price covers expense outside of manufacturing cost. This is why direct-to-consumer companies like Schiit are very popular with the budget-minded... and why people go the DIY route too.

People tend to spend a lot more time with a pair of speakers than a pair of headphones, though. Many people with nice speakers will keep the same pair for 5 years or longer. It seems like your typical high-end headphone user will flip through headphones every 6 months or so.

The ADHD is extreme in this market... probably thanks to some of the online culture and whatnot. I don't know why people find it so difficult to keep a solid pair of headphones around. Nobody's forcing anybody to "upgrade", it's not a contest.

Anyway, you'd be surprised to know that headphone margins actually tend to be significantly smaller than those in the 2-channel world, even with the priciest stuff. The Sennheiser rep, for example, came in a couple days ago and told me about how the lower-tier, consumer-grade stuff is actually the "bread and butter" of their business. Most of the money in personal audio comes from the low end - bluetooth headphones, IEMs built for convenience, things with built-in obsolescence.

I'm pretty sure ZMF distributes their own products in the US too, so list price vs manufacturing cost is in a more reasonable balance compared to some of the much bigger names out there. Not to mention ZMF headphones don't depreciate in value on the used market nearly as much as we see with other brands. Like Zach said, you're paying for a handmade, unique, heirloom-type of product... Honestly I find it somewhat irreverent how quickly people flip Auteurs et al on the used market. Comparisons to the business dealings of HFM or Focal don't even apply. Completely different manufacturing and marketing philosophies.

 

Never a wiser word spoken. I can understand why newcomers to the hobby work their way up through headphone tiers (and even a few higher end cans) looking to find the right sound for them. I was there myself. But once you know what you like, and find a headphone (or two, or three) that gives you that, just stop. What are you gaining, if anything, by constantly choppy g and changing? Isn’t the whole point finding a great headphone for the music you like to listen to?

Or maybe the whole point is just to get “the next big thing” and show everyone that you can. I get that too, boys will be boys and have been since the dawn of time. Just not my game.

Some people have already listed their Auteurs on the Verite announcement. Some people also have far more money (or credit) than sense.

 

In short, FOMO is alive and well.

 

Sadly, there's no choice but the 2080Ti if you want to run everything above 4k/60hz. I should have prefaced that with a "I didn't actually pay the full $1,250."

On a funny note, @Mystic and I both joked about how close it was to Areola yesterday. Fun times.

I'm not going to lie, that is a weird bit of passive aggression. If people are willing to pay for these headphones because they DO add something to the hobby, then it's appropriately priced. That's how the economy works. Zach's earned quite a bit of good will, and he doesn't bullshit about the cost of manufacturing unlike some companies (like a certain Chinese one.)

The HD6x0 are several DECADES old, and were relatively expensive for the time. They've been mass produced for years, and that lowers value quite a bit. Now you can get a HD650 for nearly a third of what they use to cost....and that's not taking into account inflation.

Same with the HD800. You can get one on sale brand new for under a grand. Used goes as low as $600.

 

Im a little glad this was acknoledged, "areolus" is all i was able to think of upon announcement.

I also agree in favor of the pricing. Zach's headphones are as much works of art as they are headphones to me. Not to mention some of my favorite sounding headphones. Theyre the kind of headphones Ill have and enjoy 40 years from now. Im not confident in many other headphones to last me for life like i am with ZMF's. Id also rather my cash go towards a company far more devoted and passionate about their craft than the big companies.

The Verite likely wont be to my taste as my eikon is as neuteral as i can do, but i have been looking for an open replacement for my nighthawks with actual upper mids. RIP wallet, cant wait to see this aeolus. Best of luck zach!